Friday, April 11, 2014

200 County high points (only 2900+ to go)

200th County High Point

I had
planned on running a 50km race in Arizona to mark my 50th birthday,
but my ankle injury meant that a 31 mile run wouldn’t be prudent.Since I had a plane ticket I decided to do a
bit of research and find some nice places to run in the Phoenix area.Worst case, it would be a nice long weekend
with some running in warm weather and sunshine.I looked at a bunch of different county high points, quickly eliminating
any that mentioned “exposure” or “scramble” and came up with Mt Union as a
goal.

Mt Union
was especially attractive as it had a fire tower on top and it could be accessed
via a dirt road, so the footing would be good.I bagged some other small hills while out running.

The ascent of Mount Union was pretty easy, although the access road
was a bit rough for a low clearance vehicle.The weather was ideal for the 3 mile round trip.I spent about 5 minutes on the summit taking
pictures.There was a random snow shower
while I was up there, just a few flakes flying but it added to the cool factor
of this high point (7,979’).

From the
“Hike Arizona” website:When miners first explored the Prescott area in the early
1860's, some Confederate sympathizers among them named a nearby high peak "Mount
Davis" for Jefferson Davis. In retaliation, Union loyalists named the adjacent
higher peak "Mount Union".